Category: Climate

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Something I never thought I’d say…

I suppose there are a lot of those things.

In this particular case, it’s I’m happy with how long my computer battery lasts. I’m also somewhat impressed with the iPad battery too.

The computer is insane. I’ll use the thing for days. I’ll be surprised when I get a low battery warning and then think, “Oh Yeah, it’s been a while!” This is very different from the older machines I’ve had. I lived by their power monitors and always carried spare batteries or adapters.

I’m still working on settings on the iPad to minimize its power consumption. My Computer and iPad both use the M2 chip but the iPad is more in line with a day or day and a half of use. I think that’s because there are background applications that wake up or are running on the iPad that aren’t as “busy” on the computer.

I believe I can probably trim more of the iPad background applications out of the background and realize more power savings.

The point is, when I started using laptop computers years ago, a 2 hour battery life was considered good. Now I’m talking about 2 day battery life between charges. I’m using the machine as I normally would, I’m typing blogs, surfing the net, working on stories, (although not fast enough there,) attending video conferences or watching lectures. Through it all, the computer doesn’t seem to care or get winded. I don’t think I’ve heard the fans come on, ever.

For the first time I’ll leave the house with my machines in my brief case and leave the chargers behind.

I suppose this is on my mind because today the computer asked for a bit of power. I plugged it in, and it said okay I’m charging to 80% quickly. (That would have actually gotten me through my typical day with ease.) The computer then switched over to a holding pattern at 80% and will finish charging by about 1:30PM.

This means that the machine has figured out my general habits and is using the charging feature Apple designed to extend battery life. It’s cool. I can override it if I want, or need to, but why? I’d rather have a battery that’s healthy in two or three years (like my iPhone 12 Pro) than force the issue. Besides, I’m using the big monitor in the office. I like this monitor a lot but I like working with the computer on the back deck more.

For the past 24 hours the wind has been kicking up to crazy gusty levels. I don’t feel like sitting out on the deck in all the blowing dust and pollen. Even though the sun is shining and the temps are nice.

It’s been all I could do to keep my sinuses open and the poor dog literally snorted a patch of pollen he thought was a food wrapper (I think). He’s been sneezing 5 or 6 times at a go for the past two days. I laugh at him… Then he saunters down the hall trying to look dignified, until another sneezing fit hits and he sneezes himself into a wall or something. My continuing to laugh gets me a dirty look and he retires to his “Room” where he can be alerted about food but doesn’t have to look at me.

All of which is to say that the amount of pollen in the air is so high that getting it into a keyboard would not be such a good thing. So I don’t need to be sitting outside for my sake, the keyboard’s sake, or the dog’s sake. All of us are quite comfortable inside.

I’ve got the leeward side of the house open for the fresh air but every once in a while the wind will shift just for a minute or two and blow a new batch of yellow joy into the house.

I was originally going to use a photo of my hand but when I looked at the photo I realized that you could easily see all of my fingerprints. Probably not a great idea to broadcast that kind of biometric information across the internet! With a little work I could convert the image into usable prints, so you get the swiffer. If the FBI ever needed non carbon fingerprint dust, I can recommend pine pollen.

I hope you all have a nice Monday. I’m hitting the sinus spray again!

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Just how much of Canada is burning?

The smoke is covering the East Coast as far south as Myrtle Beach. My goodness! Have Canadian Patriots lit the place on fire to cover a Coup? Under cover of smoke are patriots dragging Trudeau out of parliament?

One can only hope!

Will Canada pay reparations to the United States and / or carbon credits to the EU to offset this?

I know I shouldn’t be making fun of the situation but when you take the whole green thing to its insane conclusion then we have to ask these kinds of questions.

The smoke cover is also going to be reducing the efficiency of solar panels and causing more carbon to be produced because of unusual demands on the electrical grid.

OMG! Canada’s ESG Score is going to take a hit!

It is not my intention to be mean to Canada. The Canadian people suffer under Trudeau. They have my sympathy.

I use this event to highlight the absurdity of carbon taxation and ESG scoring. Because neither system can be enforced and neither system appears to account for those events we used to call “Act Of God”. Since God is dead in the minds of the WEF attendees there can be no “Acts Of God” and therefore someone is responsible.

It’s well known, it can’t possibly be the government, or the super wealthy, or the movers and shakers in the entertainment industry.

The only people left who can be punished, are the taxpayers.

I’ll bet 6 months from now there’s going to be some tax hike in Canada that will be called wildfire mitigation and the funds will go anywhere but into proper stewardship of the land.

I can make that bet because California has tried to implement exactly those kinds of taxes. They’ve failed but for a time it looked like California was going to tax people living in “higher risk” zones for additional fire fighting resources.

They almost got away with it, until someone pointed out studies that proved the worst wildfires originated in California State Controlled & “maintained” forests.

Yep, the wildfires were originating in areas owned by the State of California and in many cases the California Department of Forestry hadn’t been allowed to do the proper maintenance to remove dead trees or undergrowth because they didn’t have their full appropriation.

Logging and other forestry management, in some cases, was blocked by environmentalist groups doing impact studies, often for years. Until a fire swept through the area being studied and well, I guess there wasn’t a need to do an impact study anymore.

Uh like yeah Professor Moonshaft-Sunbeam-Jones, the forest burned really hot. Like all our equipment is toast. The entire colony of inverted 9 toe hermaphroditic spotted periwinkles flew off when the fire came toward them. Too bad about Alboneus & Groompa being burned up, I liked Zem both… They kept saying the fire wasn’t real while the rest of us like, uhh ran.”

Perhaps I’m too mean toward the academics but over the years I’ve heard some truly astoundingly stupid things being said by supposedly educated people.

We know that dead trees in a forest are a fire hazard, we know that lots of brush is a fire hazard, we know that people wandering through the forests can become a fire hazard if they’re careless with camping or smoking or just suddenly fascinated that hitting two rocks together can cause a spark. (That last one I’ve actually seen an adult male doing.)

On the plus side, on that occasion I got a glimpse into what early hominids looked like discovering fire… That I was seeing this in 2022 was terrifying.

My point is that most countries and states within those countries have fire mitigation procedures. The question we should be asking is; why aren’t those procedures being followed?

In California it appears it’s about money not getting to the agencies who are tasked with the job. I’d suggest our Canadian brothers and sisters, ask their respective government agencies what’s going on.

Equally, I’d say for them not to take the government statements that the fires are being caused by climate change as gospel. Yes, climate change may be partially responsible. But if we’ve known climate change is happening, why haven’t more resources been allocated to forestry services to proactively mitigate the problem?

Could it be that government wants to use wildfires for their political and financial benefit?

Just a few questions that run through my mind.

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You’ve got to be kidding!

I swear, will Winter never end?

I woke up to a couple of inches of snow this morning. All I can think is, “it figures,” I had something that I needed to do today aside from shovel snow.

I knew when I put the snow shovel away earlier in the week, that I was probably doing bad juju, but come on it’s May!

You know, spring flowers… Come to think of it, the Apple tree was covered in new buds and the mountain lilacs were blooming as well. I have no idea what this is going to do to all those plants.

I’ll admit, it’s kinda pretty.

Even Jesse is over winter. I let him out this morning and he pranced around a little, then came back inside. He’s asleep on the couch now after talking to me about the snow outside. I assume he’s telling me that he’s done with it too. He’s been losing his winter coat so it might be that he’s just underdressed for the weather.

It looks like the sun is trying to poke through so I might not have to shovel, it’s 35° and rising. Perhaps I’ll sit here and appreciate the “Specialness” of this snow.

Looking at the temps for the last 8-10 hours I’m surprised it snowed at all, much less accumulated. I’d have thought this would be rain. I guess I’ll call it a magical storm and appreciate it for it’s uniqueness.

I’ll also be thankful that Jesse’s grooming appointment is next week. This is going to make a muddy mess.